Innovation in manufacturing sector is necessary

Educational institutions can enter into contract with DRDOâ€™s laboratories for research services

Research on new materials is the need of the hour to give necessary impetus to new developments, and the perceptible gap between educational system and industry in the country should be reduced to boost research, said DRDO (Project Monitoring) Director V. Varadharajan.

Delivering graduation day address at Anna University College (Dindigul centre) here on Saturday, he said the country needed trained human resources. â€œWe need smarter products in our day-to-day life. Academicians and researchers in higher educational institutes should interact more with the industry to make innovative products and to provide innovative services,â€ he added.

While software industry had taken the country to new heights, the country had still been lacking in world-class manufacturing standards in electronics sector.

Semiconductor industry could not boast of a world-class Silicon foundry producing the latest processors.

Dependency on import of critical electronic devices exposed systems to malware content that could help adversaries attain their objectives through devious means, he added. â€œInnovation in manufacturing sector is necessary,â€ he added.

Now, Hardware Technology Parks with an aim of promoting Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) were being set up across the country. With 52 laboratories and 7,000 scientists and nearly 25,000 technical and administrative personnel, the DRDO had been providing the vital link between its laboratories and educational institutions to carry out directed research.

Educational institutions could enter into contract with its laboratories for acquiring research services. It had also set up a Research and Innovation Centre at IIT-Madras and a Bio-Technology Research Park at Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.